What's Hot: Recycling old books, conceals and protects the iPad and cool looking.

What's Not: Adds a lot of weight to the tablet.

Reviewed by Tong Zhang

There are a lot of people making cases for the iPad models, but the folks at ReAuthored had a better idea. They take old hardcover books that have been discarded and hollow the pages out and put faux leather into the vacant slot and turn it into a tablet holder. When you close the case, it looks exactly like a book since it's made from an actual book. It protects the tablet during transport and it completely conceals the idea that it's a tablet case. Since these books are hand selected, each case is different and there are many themes and book titles available.

Design

The design of the ReAuthored case for the new iPad is deceptively simple yet ingeniously fitting. We've all gotten rid of our old books before, but ReAuthored tracks these books down and hand selects the books that are in the right size, interesting topic and good condition and turn them into a tablet case. ReAuthored doesn't pull books from circulation and only picks books with strong covers. What's even more interesting is that the ReAuthored case often leaves some pages from the original book still there as a part of the illusion that this is a book instead of a tablet case. The tablet holder is form fitting and has two elastic traps to keep the new iPad inside securely. The holder is made with faux leather in generic black and brown colors, or in floral print in both colors as well as black crocodile print. The faux leather looks sturdy and the surface is soft. There's also a tab on the upper right hand corner to help you easily take the tablet out of the holder.

Since the ReAuthored case for the iPad models usual comes from a used book, you might not get a brand new book cover. But the exterior covers are always in very good condition for structural support as a tablet carrier. The worn corners add some charm as the illusion of a book. There's also an elastic strap strong enough to hold the cover to the case. The ReAuthored iPad 3 case is larger than the tablet it's holding and it adds more weight than most cases. The iPad 3 case with the tablet inside weighs 3.1 lbs.

Features

As the ReAuthored case is meant for carrying your new iPad with you in a backpack or bag, it doesn't offer any cutouts or other features a regular case offers. You can use the tablet while it's in the ReAuthored as long as you don't have to use the buttons or ports on the tablet. You do have access to the front camera and the Home button along with the touch screen.

One unique feature the ReAuthored case offers is that you can not only choose the theme of the bookcover you prefer, but also offer a book that you absolutely love to use as a case for your device. Just contact the case maker and make sure your book is in good enough a condition to make into a case. ReAuthoered offers cases for many devices and in many sizes including all iPad models, Kindle models, Nook as well as many popular Android tablets. And for some models, you can choose specific book category as the title of your bookish case.

Conclusion

The ReAuthored iPad 3 Case is certainly a unique take on recycling your old books and gives paper books a second life. The case is very protective as it's sitting deep inside of a hardcover book, and it hides the identity of your gadget better than any other cases we've seen. The large collection of books gives you plenty of choices and the interior pattern and color selections are also good. If you don't like anything you see, you can even provide your favorite book for the case maker to turn it into a case. This is just something you don't see everyday! Down side of using a hardcover book is that it adds considerable amount of weight and you need to take the tablet out to use if you need access to buttons and ports.